Many soldiers returning from Iraq or Afghanistan have a newly recognized condition that leads to the need for lung function testing, reports a paper in the September Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
 

The appropriations bill package under consideration by the House contains a provision that prevent the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) from implementing a key provision in its campaign to End Black Lung, a disease which claimed the lives of 10,000 coal miners in the last decade.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is encouraging Americans this month, as part of National Radon Action Month, to take simple and affordable steps to test their homes for harmful levels of radon gas.

In a study of non-metal miners in the United States, federal government scientists reported that heavy exposure to diesel exhaust increased risk of death from lung cancer.

A new study finds that 5 percent of all cancer deaths in Britain – approximately 8,000 deaths each year --are linked to occupations, particularly those where asbestos, diesel engine fumes or shift work is involved.

Lung cancer takes more lives than any other cancer. This year it will kill an estimated 160,340 Americans – more than breast, colon and prostate cancers combined. Yet while lung cancer remains largely a death sentence — just 15.9 percent of those diagnosed are alive five years later — the federal government funds far less research on the disease than on other common cancers.

New health research gives hope to workers and residents exposed to toxic dust and fumes after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11. A study finds that some of those people have shown gradual improvement in lung function, indicating that airway injury is reversible in at least some cases.

The EPA has a message for you: test your home for radon, fix the problem if you find one – and possibly save your life. As part of National Radon Action Month, the EPA is urging the public to test homes for high levels of the colorless, odorless gas  but dangerous gas.

Female smokers have a much greater risk of death from lung cancer and chronic obstructive lung disease (COLD) in recent years than did female smokers 20 or 40 years ago, reflecting changes in smoking behavior according to a Special Article published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

Like other recipients of direct federal payments, black lung beneficiaries and medical providers must begin receiving their benefits by direct deposit or prepaid debit card by Friday, March 1.